Riassunto
Riassunto di Kim
A chi è rivolto
For readers who love road stories, vivid settings and young heroes who live by their wits. It also rewards anyone curious about the British Empire in India, espionage, spiritual quests and loyalties tested by adventure.
Che cos’è questo libro
Kim is a novel by Rudyard Kipling, published as a book in 1901 after appearing in magazines the year before. It follows an orphan boy of Irish parents who grows up on the streets of Lahore in British India. His name is Kimball O'Hara, but everyone calls him Kim. Kipling was born in Bombay and spent his early years there and later worked as a journalist in Lahore, so he knew the sounds, smells and crowds he describes.
The story begins when Kim meets an old Tibetan lama who is looking for a sacred river. Kim joins him as his disciple and the two set out along the Grand Trunk Road. At the same time Kim is drawn into a very different business. The British government runs a secret service that watches for Russian agents along the northern frontier, and its members call their work the Great Game. A horse dealer Kim knows is part of it, and Kim carries a message for him before he understands what it means.
What do you get from the book? You get a long walk across a whole country, with its trains, bazaars, holy men, soldiers, widows and rogues. You also get a boy who can pass as a Hindu, a Muslim or a European, and who must decide where he belongs. The first key point is the boy himself, sitting on a cannon in Lahore.
In questo riassunto
- 1A street boy rules the cannonFree
- 2A holy man needs a disciple
- 3A message hidden in a boy's errand
- 4Soldiers discover who Kim really is
- 5School teaches Kim to be a sahib
- 6The Great Game needs a boy who can pass
- 7Kim is torn between two loyalties
- 8Faith, empire and the many Indias
- 9A road novel told with colour and speed
Punto chiave 1 di 9
A street boy rules the cannon
The novel opens in Lahore, in front of the museum the locals call the Wonder House. Kim sits on top of the great bronze gun called Zam-Zammah, against the rules of the city. He is a thin, sunburned boy of about thirteen. He looks like any poor native child, but he is the son of an Irish soldier.
His father, Kimball O'Hara, served in an Irish regiment and later worked on the railway. After the death of his wife, the man fell into drink and opium and then died. He left his son a leather amulet case holding three papers. Kim has been told to keep them safe because one day they will bring him good fortune. A woman who sells opium has raised him in a loose way, and Kim has grown up in the bazaar.
The boy speaks the local languages better than English. He is called Little Friend of all the World because he gets along with every kind of person. Hindu, Muslim and Sikh boys play with him on the gun. He runs errands, begs for food and slips in and out of every house in the quarter. Nobody in Lahore teaches him to read the Bible, but he learns people the way other boys learn lessons.
On this day two figures change his life. One is Mahbub Ali, a horse dealer from Afghanistan with a red-dyed beard, who trades in Lahore and knows Kim well. The other is a stranger in strange clothes who walks into the Wonder House to talk with its English curator. Kim watches the stranger with an appetite for any odd thing.
This opening scene sets up the book's main tension. Kim has the face and skills of a street child, but he carries a European inheritance he does not yet understand. The reader meets a boy who is free, clever and quick, and who has no home but the road. That freedom is what the lama and the secret service both notice.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Kim
What is the book Kim about?
Kim is about an orphan boy in British India who becomes the disciple of a Tibetan lama seeking a sacred river. At the same time he is trained as a spy in the Great Game between Britain and Russia.
What is the Great Game in Kim?
The Great Game is the name given to the quiet rivalry between Britain and Russia for influence in Central Asia. In the novel it means the spying, mapping and secret messages used to watch the northern frontier.
Is Kim a true story?
No, Kim is a work of fiction, published in 1901. Kipling drew on his own youth in Lahore and on real places and customs, but the characters and plot are invented.
Is Kim hard to read?
The language is rich. The story moves briskly and the characters are vivid.
What is the main message of Kim?
Kim shows a boy who belongs to many worlds and must find his place among them. It also contrasts the lama's spiritual quest with the worldly work of empire, and values friendship and loyalty.